The Arizona Diamondbacks made their six-year, $206.5 million contract with Zack Greinke official on Tuesday, then introduced the 32 year old in a press conference held at Chase Field on Friday morning.
Greinke was flanked by Diamondbacks general manager Dave Stewart and chief baseball officer Tony La Russa.
Speaking from Major League Baseball’s annual Winter Meetings earlier this week, Stewart acknowledged there was additional motivation to pursue Greinke from the standpoint of taking him from the division rival Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers were believed to be in a bidding war for Greinke with the San Francisco Giants, only to be stunned by Arizona’s late and furious pursuit. “We were minutes away from going to a different team,” Greinke said on Friday.
The Diamondbacks seemingly earned the 32 year old’s commitment by guaranteeing a sixth year and giving Greinke the largest average annual value in Major League Baseball history.
Greinke’s $34.42 million average shattered the previous high — $31 million — shared by Miguel Cabrera and David Price. Price reached the average this offseason by signing a seven-year, $217 million contract with the Boston Red Sox.
Greinke’s deal includes an $18 million signing bonus and calls for him to earn a minimum of $31 million annually, per Jon Heyman of CBS Sports:
greinke breakdown $18M signing bonus, salaries of $31M, 31M, 31M, 31.5M, 32M, 32M
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 11, 2015
Additionally, the valuation of Greinke’s contract is shy of $200 million due to deferred salaries:
slight change: valuation of greinke's $206MM deal is $193,849,298. that's due to deferred payments coming in Nov, not July
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 11, 2015
The contract calls for Greinke to donate one percent of his annual salary to the Diamondbacks’ charity:
greinke has agreed to donate 1 pct of yearly salary to dbacks charity
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 11, 2015
While Greinke has a limited no-trade clause, he’ll receive $2 million should Arizona trade their ace:
greinke has limited no-trade. but he also gets $2M if traded (one time) #dbacks
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 11, 2015
The contract also calls for Greinke and the Diamondbacks to split the cost on four tickets:
greinke gets 4 premium season tickets, 2 at team's cost, 2 at greinke's (nice to see them compromising) #dbacks
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 11, 2015
Whether taking the lifetime or current value of Greinke’s contract, it’s the richest ever doled out by the Diamondbacks organizations. That previously was a six-year, $68.5 million deal given to Yasmany Tomas last offseason.
Greinke signed a six-year, $147 million contract with the Dodgers in December 2012. He opted out of the remaining three years and $71 million in early November, then declined the Dodgers’ qualifying offer nine days later.
In three seasons with the Dodgers, Greinke was 51-15 with a 2.30 ERA. He was an impressive 6-0 with a 0.69 ERA, 41 strikeouts and seven walks over six starts (41.1 innings) at Chase Field during that same time frame.
The first meeting of the 2016 season between the Diamondbacks and Dodgers is April 12. The game is the Dodgers’ eighth of the season, but their first at home.
Los Angeles receives a compensatory pick between the first and second rounds of the 2016 draft for not re-signing Greinke.
